


Recalling a Replica

by KupoWonders



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, Memory Loss, Past Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-25
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2019-03-09 08:26:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13477572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KupoWonders/pseuds/KupoWonders
Summary: In the diary he wrote as Axel, Lea finds repeated mention of a replica that was once his friend. He might not be able to remember her, but didn't he promise to bring his friends back?Replicas should be able to be recreated, so maybe the man behind the Replica Program can help...





	Recalling a Replica

The lab underneath the castle in Radiant Garden still gave Lea the creeps. He hated the sound of the tiles clinking under his boots, hated the cold, clinical grey walls. He’d hoped that the recompleted apprentices would just agree that closing off the lab was best for everyone, but the moment that Even had stabilised he had holed himself away in there and insisted that only urgent business could get him back out. It was the same sort of stunt he often pulled as Vexen; obviously some things were just his personality. Still, that had never deterred him as Axel - it wouldn’t stop him as Lea, either. 

Even had locked himself in one of the smaller side rooms, and even through the metal door Lea could hear him muttering to himself. He didn’t bother knocking - instead he simply summoned his shiny new Keyblade (it was coming easier to him now, but it still refused to appear most of the time) and pointed it at the lock, waiting for the bright beam of light that would make it click open. The door swung open quickly enough, and as he stopped in the doorway he caught the look of utter derision that crossed Even’s face at the sight of him. 

He grinned in response, giving him a cheerful wave. Even made an audible sound of disgust and looked away, turning back to the various papers he was frantically scribbling on. 

“Haven’t you ever heard of knocking?” Even sneered, not glancing up again. “I’m busy, so make use of yourself for once and leave.”

“I need to ask you something,” Lea stated, stepping further into the room. He had to dodge a few scattered test tubes and papers that looked like they’d been on the floor for a while to get closer to him, and although he didn’t think he’d disturbed anything the look on Even’s face grew murderous. He looked away from the notes, finally, his eyes bugging out and his lips curling into an almost snarl. Part of Lea wanted to laugh, but he knew if he did then he’d have no chance of being listened to. 

“And I have no desire to hear your inane questions. I am in the process of replicating the notes that were left behind in the castles - every second of my time that you waste is invaluable research being lost. Your deplorable actions have already cost me enough time and resources - the discoveries that were taken from the world by my absence can never-”

“If it was more human experiments, then I think the world is better off without them,” Lea interrupted. His voice was a lot sharper than he intended, but Even didn’t seem to care too much. 

Even scoffed, shaking his head and turning back to his notes. “If you seek an apology for events a decade old, then you won’t find one here,” he stated. “In case you had forgotten, you murdered me in cold blood and I have yet to receive any acknowledgment.” He glanced up from his notes, fixing Lea with the most venomous look he had ever seen. “Ienzo informed me of what you did with the Riku Replica once I was gone. Your blatant disregard for everything the Replica Program stood for, your manipulation of my creation to betray the Organization is inexcusable-”

“You let the traitors use the Replica for their own ends,” Lea reminded him. “You manipulated him too, in case you’d forgotten. But the Replica Program was what I wanted to talk about.”

“Creating a replica of Roxas will not bring him back-”

“No,” Lea interrupted. The mention of Roxas’s name was like a lance through his chest. Seeing Sora had been bad enough, catching traces of his best friend in the boy’s smile, the determined set of his eyes, so sudden and clear that he had to stop himself from uttering the wrong name - he didn’t need Even reminding him either. He fought to keep his expression neutral, to not show how rattled he was by a name. “I’m not here for Roxas.”

“Oh?” Even said, arching an eyebrow. “Did you form an unbreakable bond with the Riku Replica before or after you watched him murder Zexion?”

“I’m not here for the Riku Replica either.”

He reached into the pocket of his black coat, seeing Even’s eyes following the movement as though he expected him to summon a chakram and kill him again, and withdrew a sleek white book. The Nobody symbol was emblazoned on the front, as well as ‘VIII’ underneath it. There was no other decoration, although a few small orange bookmarks poked out from between a few pages. He spotted Even’s surprised expression as he recognised it, but the look quickly turned to one of derision. Even’s sneer returned. 

“Do you want me to congratulate you on keeping up your diary? I must admit that I expected such a rigorous task to be beyond you-”

“There was another Replica, wasn’t there?” Lea stated, getting straight to the point. “Just replicating Riku doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Riku wasn’t the one with the Keyblade, not back then, and the Keyblade’s what the Organization needed. He’s not the only one you’d replicate.”

Even finally straightened up from his hunched position, although the pen in his hand still hovered over his notes. His expression was curious, although guarded, and Lea knew he finally had his full attention. 

“An interesting hypothesis,” Even began, and Lea wanted to punch him. “I entertained the notion that I must have created two, perhaps even more. But if I did, I have no memory of it. Well,” he said, glancing away, “that’s not quite true. I remember multiple creation pods in my lab, and checking up on more than one. But I have no memory of what befell the other, or if they truly existed. Who knows what memories are true, split across two lives and a period of nonexistence? It would be interesting to study such a-”

“Back to the Replicas,” Lea interrupted. “You wouldn’t create a Replica of… of Roxas. Especially not within the first days of his existence.”

“Of course not, there is far too little data.”

“But you could make one of Sora.”

“Hypothetically, yes. But there is no evidence-”

Lea flipped open the pages of the diary he had kept as Axel, to one quite far along that was bookmarked. He turned it toward Even, and the man made a show of hesitating for a few seconds before looking. His eyes darted across the page, and his eyebrow raised again. 

“A female Replica?” Even muttered. “One that falls unconscious and loses control over- one that can _wield_ the Keyblade?”

Even snatched up the book and began to flick through to the bookmarked pages, while Lea leaned back on one leg and watched. Part of him was self-conscious at the thought of Even reading his diary, but he brushed that aside. 

“Xion?” Even whispered, as though testing the name. 

“Number fourteen,” Lea clarified. “I… I referenced her number a lot at the beginning. She looked like Namine, apparently, but could wield a Keyblade… there’s something about her face changing later on-”

“As though her base design is shifting?” Even said. He seemed to be drinking in every word as though it was vitally important, although his expression still bled disapproval. “Did you keep track of the transformations? What may have triggered them?”

“I was just writing about my friend,” Lea argued. He didn’t know if Even was even listening to him, his face was practically buried in the book- “I wasn’t trying to analyse her, alright?”

“The Organization wanted to get rid of her?” Even suddenly shrieked, and Lea jumped. “A prime Replica, one fit for numbered status, and Saix decided she wasn’t worth the effort to maintain? A decision to eliminate her or Roxas must be made?!” His head snapped up, his gaze furious. “She’s unstable because I wasn’t there to perform maintenance! I could have prevented this! There’s so much data I could have gathered, so much information about her - a replica with an unstable appearance, a gender identity separate from her base- What was her personality like? Was her combat style the same as Sora, as Roxas?”

“I don’t know,” Lea said, patience growing thin. “I can’t remember her. I know she existed - I wouldn’t have written all of this for some imaginary friend - but she’s… she’s gone.” Just like Roxas. “But you made her. You created her using Sora’s data - you could make her again. You could bring her back, right?”

Even froze, the hand holding the diary beginning to go slack. He looked to Lea, truly looked at him, and the derision fell away from his face as what he had came here for sank in. Something uncomfortable twisted in Lea’s chest - that wasn’t a look that was hopeful. That wasn’t a look that said that this was something he could do. 

“Even if I had the materials,” he began, each word uncharacteristically slow and deliberate, “she would not be the same. It would be the same base model, true, but the experiences that made it unique, that made it her, would not be there. I don’t know what event caused it to vary from the original so strongly, especially if it was supposed to be the primary model instead of the defective one I kept at Castle Oblivion. If I could isolate the variables-”

“You’re a scientist,” Lea reminded him, growing more desperate. He didn’t know Xion - not really, not anymore - but he didn’t want to lose her. He had lost Roxas already, but a replica could be rebuilt where a Nobody couldn’t- “Are you telling me that there’s no way you could make her again?”

“Not in the same way. She would be a different person.”

“You don’t know that! We don’t remember her, how would we know-”

“You are asking me to bring a child into existence to replace someone you barely remember,” Even argued. His tone had grown abruptly colder. “To call it by the same name, to fill a hole left by someone else. You wouldn’t be bringing back your friend, Lea - you would be manipulating a child into something they cannot be, and would inevitably be disappointed with the result. I am not creating another replica for you to use.”

He closed the book and pushed it back toward Lea. He barely glanced at it, keeping his full attention on Even. 

“You wouldn’t even try-?”

“Xion was used by the Organization and destroyed, as was the Riku Replica,” Even stated. His voice was clinical, matter of fact. “As were you, and I, and everyone who had a number and a coat. To create another heartless being, to replace-”

“She had a heart.” Lea wasn’t sure where the proclamation came from, but the minute the words passed his lips he knew that they were true. “She had the biggest heart out of all of us.”

“Then I certainly cannot fulfill your request. I will not voluntarily create a heart, knowing that it will be broken.” He glanced purposefully toward the door. “I think you should leave. Our own hearts are too new, I don’t want to cause mine adverse effects by spending too long in your presence.”

Lea made no move to leave. 

“I promised I would bring my friends back,” he reminded him, and Even sighed. 

“I am aware. But a hypothesis and sporadic diary entries will not accomplish that.” Lea hesitated, and Even nudged the diary closer to him again. “Keep it, and whatever sentiment you can derive from the pages. She may be gone, but perhaps the heroes of the Keyblade can recover her in a way I cannot. You certainly thought so before, when you went knocking on their door for a Keyblade of your own.”

There was a moment of stillness before Lea shook his head. 

“You keep it. There might be something in there that changes your mind.”

Even sighed again. “I doubt it very much, but I suppose it could function as a particularly unpleasant paperweight.”

Lea didn’t react to the jibe. He turned away, each movement reluctant and sluggish, and he began to make his way toward the door. “Thanks for the help,” he called over his shoulder, but there was no force or emotion behind the words. 

“Try not to interrupt me again,” Even replied, but as Lea reached the doorway he found himself continuing to speak. “I cannot bring her back, Lea. But… if it would help you to know the specifics of the Replica Program, I am always willing to discuss it.”

Lea let out a small, surprised scoff, and he glanced over his shoulder at him. “Think I’ll pass. But, uh… I’m sorry. For killing you.”

Even snorted and turned away. “Fine. Don’t do it again.”

Lea didn’t respond, and after a moment his footsteps began to recede. Once he was a suitable distance away Even flipped open the page of the diary once more, searching for mentions of this forgotten replica. His finger traced the black ink of the name, willing himself to recall. What data from Sora would he have used as the base? 

Happy memories, probably. For motivational purposes. Conversations at sunset, the sound of the beach that was his home. 

Ones that could be replicated under new circumstances, and by the look of Axel’s diary, had been.

“Xion,” he repeated. The name still sounded strange, but not unwelcome. He couldn’t imagine her face, but he found himself thinking of the blank face of the Riku Replica before he had inputted Riku's data, the shell of this thing that he had brought to life. This child that he didn’t know how to care for, without a heart to guide him. If he’d had more time with them, like he’d had with Ienzo, would it have been different? 

“I wish I could have met you.”


End file.
